British archaeologists have found a treasure trove of Victorian condiment bottles and jam jars beneath a former nightclub, according to the Museum of London Archaeology (MOLA).

Over 13,000 bottles of historic ketchup, pickle pots and marmalade jars were found in the heart of Soho, where the Astoria nightclub once stood.

The nightclub was demolished in 2011 during the construction of Crossrail's new Elizabeth line station at Tottenham Court Road, which is due to open in December 2018.

The work revealed the club's clients were partying above the remains of a Crosse & Blackwell factory which manufactured popular sauces, condiments and jams from 1838 until 1921.

The archaeologists unearthed kilns, furnaces, a refrigeration system and cisterns originally used to power the steam engines. However, when the factory was redesigned in the 1870s, the cisterns were taken out of use and turned into a dumping ground for the pots.

"One cistern alone contained nearly three tons of Newcastle-made marmalade jars with stoneware bottles and jars. We think this is the biggest collection of pottery ever discovered in a single feature from an archaeological site in London," Nigel Jeffries, medieval and later pottery specialist at MOLA, said.

Jeffries and colleagues detailed their findings in a book released this month, called "Crosse & Blackwell 1830-1921: A British Food Manufacturer in London's West End."

"The important themes that emerged from examining this real treasure trove of glass and ceramics was that it provided a real insight into the varied tastes, Indian and French influences and adventure of the Victorian palates," Jeffries told Seeker.

The site of the Crosse & Blackwell factory emerges during the construction work for the new line station |
Credit: Crossrail

Although broken, the ceramic jars and bottles revealed that British tastes favored pure orange marmalade, raspberry jam and plum jam. For more spicy punch recipes, they demanded aromatic mustard, piccalilli and pickles of various kind, preserved ginger, and ketchup.

The ketchup's glass bottles however did not contain the sweet and tangy tomato sauce we know today but historic ketchup, known as Mushroom Catsup.

The condiment, which used spices and vinegar, was made "from the finest mushrooms obtained on the famed Leicestershire downs," according to a 1854 advertisement.

Founded as West and Wyatt in 1706 , the company was purchased in 1830 by Edmund Crosse and Thomas Blackwell.

Crosse & Blackwell was one of the first companies to receive a Royal Warrant from the newly crowned Queen Victoria in 1837; in 1841 they became the first company to mass produce jam.

Crosse & Blackwell was also one of the first brands to use celebrity chefs for the development of their products, employing cooks of the caliber of French chef Alexis Soyer, the most celebrated cook in Victorian England and Charles Francatelli, an Anglo-Italian chef famous at that time for his cook books.

Crosse & Blackwell marketed a number of Soyer's sauces. They included a spicy one for gentlemen and a milder version for ladies, and "Soyer's Relish," a bestselling sauce that sold for more than 70 years.

The company also introduced Indian flavors and marketed products such as Captain White's Oriental Pickle and Curry Powder and Abdool Fygo's Chutney.

"The spirit of these products echoes Britain's expanding empire and reflects Crosse & Blackwell's global reach," MOLA said in a statement.

Bought in 1960 by Nestlé and now part of The J.M. Smucker Company, Crosse & Blackwell manufactured, bottled and packaged their products on the Soho factory until 1921.

A journalist's account of the time reported of a "very distinctive pungency to the surrounding atmosphere" and more directly, a "suffocating effluvium," according to the local Medical Officer for Health at the time.

Unfortunately, traces of the 200-year-old ketchup and the other Victorian delicacies can now be only found in the company's illustrated export catalogues.

"The glass and ceramics were discarded empty, so we were unable to find any content or residue," Jeffries said.